FEATURES

Italy celebrated the 100th anniversary from the birth of Gino Bartali, the cycling champion who won the tour de France on the eve of the second world war, and died in 2000. For the occasion Bartali has been remembered in Tuscany with a special bike ride, a dinner a parade and free museum tours.

According to a study by “Coldiretti” Italy is the most expensive country of the Mediterranean area. The study, conducted on Eurostat data revealed that “il bel paese” is on average more expensive by 10 per cent compared to the rest of the Mediterranean area.
Therefore, Eating and sleeping in Italy costs much more than other destinations. The higher prices are mostly due to the cost of food and accommodation as hotels and restaurants cost about 10% more. The most convenient destination in the Mediterranean area, for hotels and restaurants is Montenegro, where you pay 37% less than the EU average, followed by Croatia with 26% less, Portugal, where the saving is 23% and Turkey where it is 22% lower than the European average.

The long awaited summer holidays are about to come. Small signs of recovery come from the Confesercenti-SWG survey on summer vacations.
According to Confesercenti 27 million Italians will go on holiday, but one in three will remain at home. The overall expenditure will be 21.5 billion 3.2 less than last year. August is still the favourite month, but less people will go to the sea.

Crystal clear seawater on Italian coasts this year. The number of “Blue flags” accredited shores grew to 269 with 21 new entries. “Bandiera Blu” (blue flag) is the international recognition of the Foundation for Environmental Education (Fee) in Italy. The number of municipalities which can boast the Blue Flag in 2014 rose to 140 (five more than last year).
Liguria confirmed its primacy with twenty places awarded, while Abruzzo achieved the worst result going down to the tenth place as four of its localities lost their flags.

Italians are more and more organic food eaters.
In spite of the decrease of general food consumption (-3.7%) in the first half of 2013, organic food purchase increased by almost 9%.
These data were released by Aiab (Italian Association for Organic Agriculture) and were based on surveys of the “Italian Foundation for Research in Organic and Biodynamic Farming” and on surveys of “Ismea Gfk- Eurisko”.

The mayor of Venice, Giorgio Orsini and other 34 people were arrested, and about a hundred are under investigation, in the corruption scandal related to the construction of the Mose, a system of underwater barriers designed to protect Venice from floods.
Mr Orsoni (centre-Left Democratic Party), mayor of Venice since 2010, has now resigned. He was accused of having received illicit funds which he then used in his campaign to be elected mayor. The money came from the “Consorzio Venezia Nuova”, the consortium behind the construction of the underwater barriers.

England has become the favourite choice for Italian Immigrants in the age group 20 to 40. They come to the UK to work and most of them to London.
According to the Consulate General of Italy in London, which covers the whole of England, Wales and the Islands, up to now, there are 226,404 Italians enrolled in the consular registers.
Up to the 1st of January 2013, there were 201,719 Italians recorded in the consular register, this means that from January to May 2014 there have been 24,685 new enrolments.

The European elections have just concluded and Italy, as usual, surprised everyone. Matteo Renzi, the Italian Prime minister and leader of the PD (centre left party) was the “champion of Europe”, as the newspaper “Le Monde defined him.
The Italian newspaper “Il fatto quotidiano” commented that the day of the Italian European elections, the 25th of May officially opened the Renzi’s era and closed the Berlusconi’s one.
According to many commentators, Renzi’s victory manifested a need for political stability and a political representation for moderates awaiting modernization.

Seven managers and ex-members of parliament have been arrested over the alleged attempts to influence public tenders for Milan’s Expo 2015. Milan prosecutors are investigating about 180 million Euros in building contracts awarded for Expo 2015, which is expected to give a boost to Milan’s economy.

After years of decline Italian tourism is now facing a small increase. According to official data the year 2013 ended with an increase (+3.1%) of foreign tourists in Italy compared to the previous year, with a total amount of €33.064 billion spent in the country. The data confirms the positive trend reported in 2012.
The growth was generated by the increase in international tourism inbound (+3.1%) and a decrease of outbound (-1%).